''Ode'' is an album by the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra composed by bassist
Barry Guy and conducted by his teacher,
Buxton Orr. It was recorded as part of the English
Bach Festival at the
Oxford Town Hall in 1972 and first released as a
double album on the
Incus
The ''incus'' (: incudes) or anvil in the ear is one of three small bones (ossicles) in the middle ear. The incus receives vibrations from the malleus, to which it is connected laterally, and transmits these to the stapes medially. The incus i ...
label then as a double CD on Intakt in 1996 with additional material.
Reception
The
Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
review by Thom Jurek called it "among the most profound, hard-swinging, mind-bending exercises they've ever recorded" and states "the result is a stunning array of questions, colors, shapes, timbres, textures, and moods. For Guy to score such an intricate tome, opening up the orchestra is an artistic feat; for it to sound so approachable and welcoming to non-musicians, or those approaching the music tentatively or enthusiastically, ''Ode'' is a kind of miracle".
''
The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' identified the album as part of their suggested "Core Collection" of essential jazz albums and awarded the compilation a "Crown" signifying a recording that the authors "feel a special admiration or affection for".
accessed May 10, 2016
Track listing
All compositions by Barry Guy.
# "Part I: Introduction - The End - Edgar Ende, 1931" - 8:58
# "Part II: Strophe I - Memory of the Future - Oscar Dominguez, 1939" - 8.56
# "Part III: Antistrophe I - Exact Sensibility - Oscar Dominguez, 1935" - 14.11
# "Part IV: Strophe II - Indefinite Indivisibility - Yves Tanguy, 1942" - 23.44
# "Part V: Antistrophe II - According to the Laws of Chance - Jean Arp, 1917" - 10.56
# "Part VI: Epôde - Presence of Mind- René Magritte, 1958" - 19.00
# "Part VII: Coda - Melancholy Departure - Georgio de Chirico, 1916" - 11.48 Bonus track on CD reissue
Personnel
* Barry Guy - bass, composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and def ...
* Buxton Orr - conductor
* Harry Beckett, Dave Holdsworth - trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...
*Marc Charig
Mark Charig (born 22 February 1944 in London) is a British trumpeter and cornetist.
He was particularly active in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when he played in settings as diverse as Long John Baldry's group, Bluesology, Soft Machine, a ...
- cornet
* Mike Gibbs, Paul Nieman, Paul Rutherford - trombone
The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...
*Dick Hart - tuba
* Trevor Watts - alto saxophone
The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgians, Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in the key of E♭ ( ...
, soprano saxophone
The soprano saxophone is a small, high-pitched member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented in the 1840s by Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax. Built in B♭ an octave above the tenor saxophone (or rarely, slightly small ...
*Bernhard Living, Mike Osborne - alto saxophone
* Evan Parker, Alan Wakeman - soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (whi ...
* Bob Downes - flute
The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...
, tenor saxophone
* Karl Jenkins - baritone saxophone, oboe
The oboe ( ) is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites.
The most common type of oboe, the soprano oboe pitched in C, ...
* Howard Riley - piano
A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
* Derek Bailey - guitar
The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...
* Jeff Clyne, Chris Laurence - bass
* Paul Lytton, Tony Oxley
Tony Oxley (15 June 1938 – 26 December 2023) was an English free improvisation, free improvising drummer and electronic musician.
Born in Sheffield, Oxley moved to London in 1966 and became house drummer at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club where he ...
- percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...
References
{{Authority control
Live free improvisation albums
Incus Records live albums
Barry Guy live albums
1972 live albums